SOUTHWEST OHIO Lack of investigator hurt case, some say
A report said a suspicious fire was at the site of a girl's homicide.
DAYTON (AP) -- Homicide detectives say a decision to relax response requirements by fire investigators may have compromised a murder investigation.
Dispatchers could not reach fire investigators after a suspicious fire June 8 at a duplex where a 17-year-old girl was fatally shot six days earlier, according to the firefighters' incident report.
Police officers said then that they could not do the investigation, and crews canceled the state fire marshal because of a time delay, the report said.
Homicide Sgt. Gary White said fires were set in areas of the house where detectives were seeking evidence in the death of Bonnica Ware. Her boyfriend, Antonio Myles, 29, was shot but survived.
"We only became aware of it through a follow-up in the neighborhood," White said. "They should be looking at this and saying they just had a homicide there."
Placing the blame
White blames a June 3 decision to take the city's fire investigators off standby status, which would require them to wear pagers and respond to calls within minutes.
The investigators are deputized by the Montgomery County sheriff and have full arrest powers. They might miss witnesses by not coming directly to the scene, former Dayton fire investigator Scott Bennett said.
"Witnesses aren't going to sit and wait for you," Bennett said. "Cases are made by getting out of your car, knocking on doors, talking to witnesses and talking to victims. That's how you put the match in the suspect's hands."
City fire marshal Sean Englert, who oversees the investigations unit, sent an e-mail telling the department to no longer assign investigators as on-call personnel during nights or weekends because of limited resources.
Instead, they would be on "recall" status.
"This means they are capable of being notified to report back to work, but not available for immediate dispatch from home," Englert wrote. "Therefore we are unable to guarantee [an investigator] will respond to requests with the system and resources currently in place."
Financial issue
Dayton Firefighters Local 136 says the new limit on arson investigation is about saving money. Under the union contract, investigators on standby are paid $1.50 an hour while on call but not at work.
"That's the mentality of management now," union president Tim Goecke said. "They're not looking at the repercussions of their actions. This is one of the budget cut issues that makes absolutely no sense."
Fire Chief Larry Collins said firefighters might not have known that the fire scene in question had been the site of a homicide days earlier. Fire investigators, who have access to police records, would have determined that, he said.
He said the police evidence crew should not have left the scene. Collins has since talked to Police Director Julian Davis, who has agreed that evidence crews should work arson scenes where investigators are not available.